Is it too early to talk about Christmas Displays?

6 months ago

3 min read

How early is too early to start discussing Christmas? As most store owners will have ordered in their Christmas stock at the height of summer hopefully, the end of September won’t seem too offensive. The spirit of local High Street shopping is community focused and often something of an antidote to the giants of retail that start the silly season before the last fireworks of Bonfire Night have fizzled out. As a result, it isn’t uncommon for indies to shun introducing Christmas to stores until as ‘late’ as 1st December. Whenever you choose to succumb to Christmas if you haven’t yet started planning your festive window displays and in-store displays then now is absolutely the time.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Stand out with unusual colour schemes

Red and green is THE traditional Christmas combo, but there are a many more that signify the season just as effectively. Layers of whites, with perhaps a hint of sparkle, is perhaps the second most common sort of snowy Christmas colour scheme. Gold or silver are obvious contenders too. Orange would be an unusual choice that could work well, being evocative of clove stuffed orange pomanders, or indeed the real thing. Navy blue and white is a smart combination that is reminiscent of a clear, wintery, starry night sky. Luxurious purple with gold is decadent, slightly frivolous and richly festive. For a contemporary and fun feel, try a variation on the traditional red and green theme by using hot pink and turquoise with white.

Less or More

Sometimes more is more, sometimes less is more, but halfway in between will always look half-hearted. So whether you choose to go minimal with a graphic, simple design or maximal with jam-packed festive window displays make sure you really go for it to get the most impact from your visual statement.

Cheap and cheerful indoor and festive window displays

To keep on top of your VM budget, you could raid the loft for vintage decorations and toy collections, that might have been forgotten about, to make a unique and delightfully nostalgic display. Another advantage of reusing like this is avoiding buying new decorations, which are not always produced in the most long-lasting or environmentally friendly way.

If you already have a go-to stash of Christmas display goodies, you can certainly reuse them each year (or every other on rotation to avoid repetition) but by pairing with something different, borrowed or new you can make fresh schemes each time.

Trash the tinsel

Even with the most careful handling, tinsel doesn’t often last well for repeated use. Made from plastic nowadays, unless it can be reused multiple times it is an environmental no-no. Every bit as bad as that, it is also the laziest most obvious way to say Christmas in a store. But life is too short to go without a little sparkle altogether, so consider other ways to introduce shimmer and shine. Biodegradable glitter, confetti and sequins all now exist to make the world a better place. Shiny metal cookie cutters in star or tree shapes and so on are also brilliant, inexpensive and reusable.

Go Traditional

Real life greenery is utterly charming, authentically traditional and can be used in endless ways to make indoor or festive window displays. Fill a window with fronds, use branches to make a dress for a mannequin, suspend branches and dangle decorations or products from it, hang a selection of leaves with different coloured ribbons, the choice is yours. Biodegradable to boot, you won’t have a guilty conscience, and you’ll certainly turn heads.

Zoe Hewett

Zoë Hewett is a member of Modern Retail’s Editorial Board. Zoë is an interior designer with a background in theatre design and visual merchandising. A former Visual Merchandiser for Habitat, Zoë now specialises in helping independent retailers make their mark on the high street.

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